Matthew 6:25-34
May 26th, 2019
First Call - Do Not Be Anxious (6:25-30)
25 “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? 26 Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? 27 And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?
28 And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, 29 yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 30 But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?
“If God cares for you, why need you care too? Can you trust Him for your soul, and not for your body? He has never refused to bear your burdens, He has never fainted under their weight. Come, then, soul! have done with fretful care, and leave all thy concerns in the hand of a gracious God” -Charles Spurgeon
Second Call - Do Not Be Anxious (6:31-33)
31 Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all.
“The bottom line in most fear and anxiety is you simply don’t trust that God is good. Don’t lie about that. There’s no freedom for you if you can’t say, ‘I don’t trust that you’re good. I don’t trust that you have my best interests. I don’t trust that you’re going to provide for me. I don’t trust that you’re good enough. I don’t trust that you’ll be enough for me. So I have to take it and I have to worry about it.’ You have to get to the point where you’re not pretending that’s not in there. It’s of no help for anyone to pretend you trust God. You need to say it. You need to let the Holy Spirit break you in your confession of it. Then we can deal with fear and anxiety. Fear and anxiety are never going to lose their power over you until you can be honest about what drives them, namely that you don’t trust that God is good.” -Matt Chandler
33 But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.
“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied” Matthew 5:6
“Thus, the solution to anxiety is not a simplistic, ‘stop worrying,’ but a redirecting of the disciples’ vision to the proper heart orientation, accompanied by a promise of provision.” -Jonathan T. Pennington
